As I already explained in the first Usability Terms article, consistency goes a long way in ensuring a pleasurable user experience in graphical user interfaces. While some user interfaces appear to be more graphically consistent than others, Windows has always appeared to be worse than most others - probably because it carries with it stuff that dates back to the 16bit era. IStartedSomething agrees with this, and started the Windows UI TaskForce.

It is not hard to see which of you is letting her hatred get the better of her in this thread.

Et tu, sbergman27?

You're confusing "hatred" with "frustration". Just once, I'd like to read a Microsoft article on this site without the corresponding thread getting derailed by anti-Microsoft posters into unrelated anti-Microsoft/pro-ABM issues.

I can't even read an article on this site about some new Microsoft product without someone piping in to say, "That's nothing; XYZ company (that most never heard of) did the same thing ten years ago in product ABC (that nobody ever heard of)", thus derailing the thread into who did what first rather than talking about the product itself.

This type of thing goes on and on and on.

Regrading this specific article, the "all information wants to be free, and therefore all software that is used to convey information must be free" argument has nothing to do with this article, and is yet another instance of derailing a Microsoft thread into sideshows.

As for "letting it get the better of me", yes, after the 1000th time seeing a Microsoft article derailed by some anti-Microsoft holier-than-thou utopianist, I let it get the better of me and let off some steam.